P
Italian · Puglia
Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa — Ear-Shaped Pasta with Turnip Tops
Orecchiette con cime di rapa is the definitive Pugliese primo and one of the great combinations in Italian cooking — the small, ear-shaped pasta (orecchiette, named for their resemblance to small ears) made from semolina and water is cooked together with the blanched, bitter turnip tops (cime di rapa — rapini, broccoli rabe), the cime di rapa dissolved into the cooking water creating an intensely flavoured, slightly bitter-green pasta water that becomes the sauce. Anchovy, garlic, and peperoncino are the flavouring; no tomato. The bitterness of the cime di rapa is not something to be moderated — it is the point.
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the orecchiette dough
300 g
semola rimacinata (twice-milled durum semolina)
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 pinch
fine salt
Your own market
150 ml
water
added gradually to make a firm dough
Your own market
For the dish
800 g
12–16
anchovy fillets
salt-packed or oil-packed; 3–4 fillets per portion
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
4 cloves
garlic
sliced
Your own market
1–2
peperoncino (dried red chilli)
crumbled or sliced
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
60 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
DOP Pugliese; divided — for frying and for finishing
Your own market
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II
The Method
1
Combine the semola rimacinata with a pinch of salt and add water gradually, mixing to a firm, cohesive dough. Knead for 10 minutes. The dough is ready when it is smooth, stiff, and no longer tacky to the touch.
2
Wrap the dough and leave it to rest. Roll portions into ropes approximately 1.5 cm in diameter. Cut across the rope at 1.5 cm intervals. Using a blunt knife, press each piece and drag it toward you with slight downward pressure — the dough curls up around the blade to form the ear shape. Invert each piece by pressing it over the thumb. The finished orecchiette should hold a distinct concave cup.
3
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Add the cime di rapa and blanch for 3 minutes. Lift the cime di rapa out and set aside; reserve every drop of the cooking water. The water should be dark green and sharply bitter — this is the cooking medium for the pasta.
4
Warm a generous pour of olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and peperoncino and cook until the garlic is pale gold. Add the anchovy fillets. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the anchovies must dissolve entirely into the oil, providing invisible depth with no discrete pieces remaining — if they have not dissolved, the flavour backbone of the sauce is incomplete.
5
Add the blanched cime di rapa to the pan. Sauté briefly, turning in the flavoured oil, until the greens are coated and heated through. Do not cook further at this stage — a third cooking will follow when the pasta is added.
6
Return the reserved cime di rapa water to the boil. Cook the orecchiette in this water until just tender but with resistance at the centre. Drain, retaining a ladleful of the green cooking water.
7
Transfer the orecchiette to the pan with the cime di rapa sauce, adding a splash of the retained cooking water. Toss over heat until the pasta and greens are unified and the liquid has tightened to a loose, dark green coating. Remove from the heat and finish with a drizzle of raw DOP Pugliese olive oil. The oil should visibly brighten the surface.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Handmade orecchiette from semola rimacinata di grano duro; wild or first-cut cime di rapa at peak bitterness in midwinter; salt-packed whole anchovies rinsed and filleted to order; single-estate DOP Terre di Bari or DOP Collina di Brindisi olive oil, raw-finished.
02
Estate — Handmade orecchiette from a quality semola rimacinata; cultivated cime di rapa from an Italian or specialist greengrocer; good-quality oil-packed anchovy fillets; DOP Pugliese extra-virgin olive oil.
03
Market — Dried orecchiette from a Pugliese producer; broccoli rabe (rapini) from a Turkish or Middle Eastern greengrocer; standard oil-packed anchovy fillets; a southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil.
04
House — Dried orecchiette of any reliable brand; broccoli rabe where available; anchovy fillets from a tin; any robust extra-virgin olive oil. The cooking water must still be reserved — this is not negotiable at any rung.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. The orecchiette dough is sufficiently kneaded when it is smooth, stiff, and does not stick to the hand.
◇Smell. The blanching water smells sharply of bitter greens — this pungent, green aroma confirms the water carries sufficient flavour to act as the pasta's cooking medium.
◇Sight. The anchovy fillets have dissolved without trace into the olive oil — no distinct pieces remain in the pan.
◇Touch. The cooked orecchiette yields to gentle pressure but retains a firm centre — the thicker rim of the ear is the last part to cook through.
◇Sight. The final drizzle of raw olive oil visibly brightens the surface of the dressed pasta.
◇Where it lives or dies. The anchovy must dissolve completely into the olive oil — if it does not, the dish has no foundation.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Sparkling wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance